A population of gap junction-coupled neurons drives recurrent network activity in a developing visual circuit

In many regions of the vertebrate brain, microcircuits generate local recurrent activity that aids in the processing and encoding of incoming afferent inputs. Local recurrent activity can amplify, filter, and temporally and spatially parse out incoming input. Determining how these microcircuits func...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of neurophysiology 2016-03, Vol.115 (3), p.1477-1486
Main Authors: Liu, Zhenyu, Ciarleglio, Christopher M, Hamodi, Ali S, Aizenman, Carlos D, Pratt, Kara G
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials
Gap Junctions - physiology
Interneurons - physiology
Neural Circuits
Neurons, Afferent - physiology
Superior Colliculi - cytology
Superior Colliculi - growth & development
Superior Colliculi - physiology
Visual Perception
Xenopus
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Summary:In many regions of the vertebrate brain, microcircuits generate local recurrent activity that aids in the processing and encoding of incoming afferent inputs. Local recurrent activity can amplify, filter, and temporally and spatially parse out incoming input. Determining how these microcircuits function is of great interest because it provides glimpses into fundamental processes underlying brain computation. Within the Xenopus tadpole optic tectum, deep layer neurons display robust recurrent activity. Although the development and plasticity of this local recurrent activity has been well described, the underlying microcircuitry is not well understood. Here, using a whole brain preparation that allows for whole cell recording from neurons of the superficial tectal layers, we identified a physiologically distinct population of excitatory neurons that are gap junctionally coupled and through this coupling gate local recurrent network activity. Our findings provide a novel role for neuronal coupling among excitatory interneurons in the temporal processing of visual stimuli.
ISSN:0022-3077
1522-1598
DOI:10.1152/jn.01046.2015